(4:1–13) Continuing the scriptural analogy from the previous portion of the letter (chapter 3), the wilderness generation’s forfeiture of rest in the promised land provides a warning not to neglect the gospel message of a later Sabbath rest for God’s people (4:9). The author employs the living, soul-piercing sword of God’s word to provoke a response from the readers. Christ’s supremacy and priestly mediation remain the basis for these exhortations, and subsequent sections of